4th line C

Does Gauthier intend on signing a veteran 4th line C to win faceoffs and kill penalties (à la Halpern)? If yes, why not just keep Halpern? Is the intention to keep the lesser of Desharnais or Eller in that role? Will Darche be placed there?

So right there, you have four lines. Who can you scratch out of these? White and Darche probably, but they are both pretty good and valuable to the team. In Hamilton, Engqvistcould be the one who is closer of a spot on the bottom two line. Palushaj should stay another year in the AHL since he can work on his offense game there. Blunden could also be a possibility is he has a decent camp.

So as it is right now, we could be good, but I believe we'll go for a depth player at some point. We can't be too young either after all...

I tend to think the Habs may have plans for Andreas Engqvist...if that is the case, I'd feel much more comfortable if they were able to sign a depth guy like Ryan Johnson or even Adam Mair to provide competition/cover.

Its a huge hole imo. We have no right handed face-off man, all are face-off guys are left handed, makes it harder to win face-offs on the the right circle. I think P.G. will sign or trade for someone, unless they see Engqvist as ready, but not sure how good he is on face-offs, or maybe have White take face-offs while playing RW, but I think White numbers were not that great.

I tend to think the Habs may have plans for Andreas Engqvist...if that is the case, I'd feel much more comfortable if they were able to sign a depth guy like Ryan Johnson or even Adam Mair to provide competition/cover.

I think they'll wait after camp to either trade for or sign a 4th line C if none of the rookies are impressive enough. They might try White at center as well, see how he does. I think that's the right thing to do. We have a few players that are NHL ready, or at least almost NHL ready, let's give them a chance to prove themselves.

Now... watch PG sign someone in a few hours just to make me look dumb.

Having watched the games last year, what in heaven's name would prompt anyone to place Engqvist in the NHL ahead of Darche??

If anyone is vulnerable, it might be White, he is the least reliable defensively and the slowest forward on the team, aside from Engqvist himself of course.

White's main plus is that he is one of very few willing to drop the gloves. His hits do not really result in anything much useful such as turnovers or goals. But for some people, it is nice to have one more guy who is willing to fight. It is entertaining at least, even if not much help in terms of protection (the Pacioretty mugging occured in the same game White stepped up on Boychuk to pretend to avenge a dangerous hit on Subban, which was actually not a cheap hit at all, just Subban making a sudden move to avoid contact and jumping at the same time.)

I still like the idea of keeping Desharnais at center on the 4th line. It keeps that extra offensive edge on the 4th line, and I really liked what I saw in the Moen-Eller-Kostitsyn combination last year, which was great defensively, physical, and produced some nice offense.

Darche-Desharnais-White is a good 4th line. Then we can get a Winchester/Mair to be our 13th forward and we are set.

Does Gauthier intend on signing a veteran 4th line C to win faceoffs and kill penalties (à la Halpern)? If yes, why not just keep Halpern? Is the intention to keep the lesser of Desharnais or Eller in that role? Will Darche be placed there?

I still see them signing a veteran to fill this role.

Certainly Desharnaid, Engqvist and Blunden are candidates, but i think Desharnais is going to get a look on the 3rd line and i'm not really sure that the other 2 are ready for everyday NHL duty.

To the OP, I liked Halpern a lot for the first two months, but man did he ever slide after that. He got to the point where I thought he was fairly useless. Granted he recovered to play some important shifts in the playoffs, but clearly his age and lack of foot speed were factors.

I can almost guarantee that's why he wasn't re-signed. As for replacements, I agree with those who say they'll address it after camp if no one is reaching up and grabbing it.

No idea what offers the veteran centers on the market are getting. But they aren't legion. No guarantees one is still available in September if Engqvist isn't looking so good, if that's the thinking. I'd say just sign somebody now. It doesn't have to mean that guy can't get beat out by Engqvist. And eventually there will be injuries anyway, so both of them will play at some point in a long season (if Engqvist is really that close). Ryan Johnson at $550k is an insurance policy you can't really go wrong with.

No idea what offers the veteran centers on the market are getting. But they aren't legion. No guarantees one is still available in September if Engqvist isn't looking so good, if that's the thinking. I'd say just sign somebody now. It doesn't have to mean that guy can't get beat out by Engqvist. And eventually there will be injuries anyway, so both of them will play at some point in a long season (if Engqvist is really that close). Ryan Johnson at $550k is an insurance policy you can't really go wrong with.

If we sign Johnson, Engqvist will be on the team either way as Johnson is guaranteed to get hurt.